Availability to pigs of amino acids in cereal grains

Abstract

1. Pigs prepared with re-entrant ileal cannulas were used to determine the ileal availability of amino acids in nine cereal grains including five wheats, sorghum (Sorghum vulgare Pers.), maize, barley and Triticale.2. The average true availability of amino acids in these grains was 0·88 but there were consistent differences in availability among amino acids. Generally, lysine and threonine were among the least available amino acids while glutamic acid and arginine were among the most available amino acids in cereal protein.3. There was as much variation in amino acid availability within a grain species (wheat) as among the other grains.